News of the World

Johanna is the second most important character, and her fate and ordeal sets the momentum of the plot. Her Kiowa name is Cicada, and she identifies much more with Native culture than she does with white culture. She is the mediator of two very different worlds in the book. She is the mirror that reflects white American culture, causing contemplation of itself and its own vales and customs. She also illustrates the difficulty in walking the line between two worlds, and what it is like to be an outsider, someone who is not fully accepted into any society, culture, or group. She is neither 100% Kiowa nor Anglo-American.

Johanna is a very hearty and tough individual. She is ingenuous, which she displays with her idea to use the dimes in the shotgun. She is battle-hardened, like the Captain, even though she is only 10 years old. She is somewhat emotionally unstable in that she can collapse into tears one minute and in the next be as hard as stone. She is clearly insecure and distrusting of others, shown in the way she cowers underneath her poncho when strangers are nearby, though if she feels threatened she will fight or run. Above all, she is extremely adaptable. Though she struggles, she manages to reintegrate into American society. It is, of course, with the excellent and loving care and help of the Captain that she is able to do this, but her strength of character, which she displays several times throughout the story, is firm.

Calley is a young man caught up in the wildness of post-war Texas. He is somewhat political and interested in legal matters. He engages the Captain in a legal discussion after the Durand fiasco, and he helps the Captain gather coins. He is penitent and apologetic for his earlier behavior, which shows that he is a good man at heart, forced to do bad things in extraneous circumstances. He cleans up his ways, eventually making a good living in south Texas raising cattle, and becomes a good husband for Johanna, providing her with a life balanced between the freedom of nature, on cattle drives and American civilized society, which is important for her continued happiness.

The Leonbergers are German immigrants who have settled in the D'Hanis/Castroville, Texas area. They are a terse couple possessing the exaggerated, stereotypical characteristics of the uptight, anal-retentive Prussian. When the Captain delivers Johanna, there is no display of emotion, especially from Wilhelm, who is more interested in the Agent's paperwork and whether or not the Captain has a receipt of sale for the wagon he bought with the money Wilhelm had sent for Johanna's safe return, than he is with Johanna’s welfare. The two are abusive to Johanna and the Captain eventually rescues the girl from them.

Maria is the Captain's late wife, and came from an old Spanish family in the San Antonio region. Her family lands are tied up in Texas/US bureaucratic red tape, so that the Captain doesn't have access to them. The text hints at the fact that she was a loving wife and mother, but little is actually told about her.

Elizabeth is the younger daughter of the Captain and Maria. She is married and the more industrious of the two. It’s her task to wade through the legalities of getting her mother's lands back.

Olympia is widowed and living with Elizabeth and her husband, Emory, and has struggled since then. She remarries at the end, and lives a happy life.

Johnson is a freed black man that earns his money by hauling freight around the state. His son was kidnapped by the Kiowa, but through a means no one knows, he has an innate ability to sneak into a camp and rescue captives. He rescued his son, and rescues others as well from time to time. He is a good friend to the Captain. He seeks the Captain’s help, but also does what he can to make things better for him, giving him his own pistol to take along, something that is against the law and would mean that he is now not as well-armed for his own treacherous journey. He and his men are killed in a Comanche raid at the end of the novel.

Simon is a fiddler in the town of Red River and a friend of the Captain's. He, with his girlfriend, Doris, watch over Johanna while the Captain does a reading. He also helps the Captain find her after she runs off (while Simon was watching her, it should be added). He marries Doris and they have six children together. Together, the family forms a musical group.

Doris is an Irish woman who can easily sympathize with Johanna's plight because she knows what it's like to be of two different worlds—i.e., to be Irish and American, not quite one or the other, but rather a mixture of both. She even tells the Captain that he can leave Johanna with them, permanently, and that they will take care of her.

At first, Almay is simply known as the pale-haired man. Later, he introduces himself and we learn his name. He is the narrative’s antagonist, and is so bad that his evil surprises the Captain. Almay is a pimp who prostitutes underage girls and wants to purchase Johanna from the Captain. He travels with two Caddos Indians who are his hired muscle. When the Captain refuses to sell Johanna to him and runs, Almay chases them down and begins a gunfight to try and take her from him. He is shot dead by one of the Captain's and Johanna's improvised, dime-filled shotgun shells.

The Horrell Brothers are Merritt, Tom, Mart, Benjamin, and Sam. They are basically a representation of wild, uneducated, uncouth, barbarous frontier cowboy types. They enjoy hunting down and killing Mexicans, something which they believe is a good thing, and feel that they should be written about in the newspapers. The Captain is warned about them by the Merritt brothers. The Horrell and Merritt brothers are sons of two families that are feuding.

These brothers are the antithesis of the Horrell brothers, and they are juxtaposed against the Horrells as a counterbalance to display the characteristics of good cowboys. They left their herd to personally warn the Captain about the Horrells causing trouble. They also take turns watching over the Captain and Johanna to make sure the Horrells don't come around and bother them. It’s interesting to note that the eldest Horrell carries the family name of the enemy family as his first (that is, Merritt Horrell).

Gannet is an attractive, 45-year-old widow, with a thin, girlish waist. She lives in Dallas. She owns and runs a livery stable. The Captain is romantically interested in her, but doesn't call upon her because of his daughters, whom he believes would find it as an effrontery to their mother's memory. Despite the Captain’s intentions to ask her on a date later, they never get together, and she eventually marries another man, and remains in Dallas.